Football games are among the most popular sources of sports-based entertainment in the world. Even if you discount the year-after-year success of FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, there are hundreds of imitations, some good, some bad, but all trying to produce the best football experience that they can for the players. Football manager titles are of course also quite popular, as are purely shoot-and-score titles (particularly for touch-screen mobile devices), so it is quite easy to understand the popularity of perhaps the most successful and long-running flash-based football series out there, Jumpers for Goalposts. Now on its fifth title, this series has entertained fans for a number of years now with its unique snippets of on-the-pitch action mixed with a quick and to-the-point management aspect to make for a more well-rounded game. The most recent release is Jumpers for Goalposts 90s, and you can bet that new features and a retro feel are the least you can expect from the game.

When Mousebreaker get their hands on a sports game, they definitely like to put their own stamp on it, having done so with all of the Jumpers for Goalposts games, and with Jumpers for Goalposts 90s being no exception to this tendency. This title’s gameplay is pretty much identical to its predecessors, but Mousebreaker have always relied on swapping out the details and giving us new content rather than changing the formula entirely. You must begin as a young and uninitiated football talent, playing through what is now a range of 12 skills to earn enough points to be signed by a club. Once you have managed to get signed, your responsibilities expand to training for matches, playing tiny snippets of matches through performing one of the 12 skills at game-changing moments, and also managing your personal life and your image at the same time.

In contrast to professional football games such as Pro Evolution Soccer, the only glimpse you actually get of the pitch in any of the Jumpers for Goalposts games is when performing one of the essential skills, and Jumpers for Goalposts 90s has twelve of them to learn, from the standard volley and penalty kick to debut skills such as the one-two and driven shots. The rest of your time in the game is spent trying to balance your manager rating, your team mate rating, your agent, and also acquiring a girlfriend. You must train regularly to please your manager but also socialise as well otherwise you will be seen as too boring by everyone.

The charm of Jumpers for Goalposts 90s is really in its appearance rather than in its aptitude for on-pitch action because in all honesty, the physics that the game uses for the skills is actually quite shoddy, even though this is the fifth title in the series. To be brutally honest, you would be better off looking elsewhere for a game with good physics because you will be a little disappointed if you’re expecting some solid-feeling, middle-pitch action, as even simple football-themed launch games like Football Launch have better physics than this game. The graphics are noticeably retro, however, and do go a little way to bringing some respectability back to the game, but only slightly. Football fans will be better off waiting for the Jumpers for Goalposts 5 game to be released in the hope that Mousebreaker will finally sort out the sub-par physics and generally poor design of each of the skills.